Monday, March 28, 2011

Harry & David bankruptcy filing

This article was in the USA Today. Talks about the speciality gift store for fruit, nuts and other gourmet items is filing for bankruptcy protection. In the world of consumers keeping an eye on every penny they spend it appears the high end foods offered by Harry & David stores were one of the first things to go from consumer buying. This sounds to me like again a company did not plan well for a tough economy and is going to take the somewhat easy way out. The debts to the banks, vendors, etc. of the Harry & David company will be given the option to take less on what is owed to them or maybe they will not get anything. The method of closing stores could not keep the company from the situation it is now facing. Unsure about what the future holds a new management team has been put in place. Things are not so sweet at Harry & David's right now.
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5 comments:

  1. greghardtMarch 28, 2011 at 10:06 PM

    I'm surprised a 2% drop in sales would drive a company to bankruptcy. They must be carrying a huge debt load and it seems they are ready to take more debt on as their plan to re-structure?? It expected for discretionary spending to be affected by economic swings so a company such as this should have responses ready for such problems. I wonder how they compare to their competition within this market?

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  2. lmjonesMarch 29, 2011 at 2:47 PM

    I found this article to be interesting due to the fact that the company I work for makes a lot of product for Harry and David. It was announced to us last year that in the not too distant future we will no longer be producing or co-packing for other companies, including Harry and David. I know what we did for them was small in comparison to their other products, but I am going to continue to follow this and see how the future of Harry and David turns out.

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  3. Mitch StegerMarch 30, 2011 at 4:52 AM

    One could assume that Harry & David’s business has been off for the last few years due to the economic downturn. Were they gambling on a rebound holiday season in 2010? It is a shame that a 75-year-old business has to resort to bankruptcy. Perhaps Harry & David could have averted bankruptcy by restructured their business prior to the 2010 holiday season.

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  4. UnknownMarch 30, 2011 at 4:19 PM

    I agree with you mitch, it certainly is a shame for a 75 year old co to close. But if they don't keep up with the times that's what happens. I agree with the comment about the CEO being fromt and center. The TV ad with the CEO of, I think Verizon, really impresses me. I think it is a very good projection of the company to have the CEO as freindly and honest. If that's really true is another issue.

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  5. Sylvia HemauerApril 2, 2011 at 11:42 AM

    This is really too bad, although I do think the article makes some excellent points. Harry & David to me is synonymous with high quality. However, I do not feel thy have kept up with the times, and they are using the same marketing efforts they have in the past. I like the comments you made about involving the CEO in the promotions. From Sargento I can tell you that can be a very successful advertising pitch. The other thing that I think would be a direct link into today’s very natural and organic consumers and that would be to showcase the farms, orchards and providers of your products more. If you truly are marketing premium products that you intend to market at a premium price, then you need to TELL the consumer why these are premium products.

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